Hi there, I just downloaded the trial version of Roon. I just LOVE the interface, and it has already allowed me to discover lots of music. Especially for classical, the user experience in searching for music is vastly superious to any other software I’ve tried.
But… the playback is just very unsmooth, unfortunately. I use a Sonos system in my house, with a connect in the main system, and play:1s all over in the other rooms. I use a bridge/mesh network. What happens is two things: I frequently lose connection with the roon core. This seems especially likely to happen in the Kitchen, which is farthest from the core. The sonos never has any problem though. Perhaps it is because the sonos units reinforce each other in the network, kind of, while the roon core needs to connect directly to the sonos speakers?
Also, there is much buffering and delay when switching between songs. If I don’t change songs actively it sometimes happens as well. This makes it essentially unusable for me. I can’t listen to classical works and have 5-6 s pauses between the movements.
My roon core is a simple Intel NUC running Windows 7. i5, 16 gb of ram. 32-bit. I will check further details when I get home tonight (at the office now).
Any idea about what I can do? Will the experience be smoother with another core machine? I would really like this to work, because I like the interface so much, but at present the sonos system works 10 times more smoothly on its own.
Hi @Olav_Elgvin ---- Thank you for the report and sharing your feedback with us. The insight is very appreciated!
Moving forward, to help aide in our understanding of this behavior you are experiencing with your Roon + Sonos setup, may I very kindly ask you for the following information:
You mentioned in your post that you “frequently lose connection with the roon core.” Please forgive any confusion on my part, but this sounds like you are referring to a remote device that is being used to control your Roon core. Please verify if I have this information correct.
If the above is indeed correct please be sure to also provide the make and model of remote(s) that you notice this connection issue with.
Please provided an expanded description of your network configuration and topology. I want to have a clear understanding of how your endpoints are communicating with your network and the application.
Please confirm where your musical collection is being stored/accessed from. Furthermore, you mentioned that you notice a delay between songs. Do you experience this behavior with all types of sample rates OR do find that this isolated to a specific sample rate? How about locally stored content versus TIDAL content, same observations?
Concerning the first point, yes you are right. My remotes lose connection with the core.
I notice this with both of my remotes. One is an iPhone 6S, running iOS10. The other is an iPad Pro 10.5, running iOS11.
Concerning my core, turns out it’s not an i5. It’s a i3 (i3-3217U), with 1.8 ghz cpu, and 16 gb of ram.
My network: I am not 100% sure I know what information you need. Both my core and my sonos system is connected to my wireless network. I don’t have any details about the router and the network at the moment, other than I think it should be “fast enough”. I have no trouble streaming netflix to two computers at once for example.
And my sonos units are then connected to a sonos bridge, which creates a separate sonos network (which somehow still is connected to the main network), which is more stable. In my kitchen, for example, I have two play:1s and a sonos sub, and this was too much to handle with regular wifi. With the sonos bridge network, it’s not a problem.
So far, I’ve only streamed tidal, in hifi quality. Haven’t attempted to stream local files yet.
Hi @Olav_Elgvin ---- Thank you for touching base with me, I appreciate the follow up and the insight!
Moving forward, while we understand that the you are able to connect to other service like TIDAL and Netflix, keep in mind that Roon is going to depend on stable communication between the devices inside your network, as opposed to a single device on your network communicating with a server on the internet. Using Netflix tells us your connection to the internet is working, but it doesn’t tell us very much about communication within your network.
With the above in mind, here is the information I am looking for:
Further data gathering:
If you were to stream to your endpoints via the TIDAL application, what is the experience like with Roon temporarily removed from the equation?
As asked previously, if you can try streaming some locally stored content I’d be curious to see what the experience is like.
Networking information:
Make/model of the router being implemented.
Insight into any additional networking hardware being used in your network topology. These devices would include switches, repeaters, extenders, powerline adaptors, etc.
The idea behind providing this information is so we can have a clear understanding as to how information is moving across your network. Having these details is important because it will allow us to advise on any variable that we believe could be causing the issue(s).
Remote connectivity troubleshooting:
During your troubleshooting of this behavior have you tried…
Rebooting ALL of your devices? This would include your Roon core, remotes, and any pertinent networking hardware (i.e your router and any other networking tools - switches, extenders, repeaters, etc).
Reinstalling the application on the mentioned remote devices?
If you manually enter the IP address being assigned to the device hosting your Roon core on the remotes, do they connect?
If you were to temporarily take the Sonos bridge offline do you notice any changes in behavior with your remotes?
TEST #1
Shut down your Core
Open Roon on your Remote
(Tip: If you are using a iphone, make sure you keep it awake)
Roon should be on the “Searching For Core” screen
Start up the Core
Do the remotes connect and stay connected?
TEST #2
Start up your Core
Open Roon on your Remote
(Tip: If you are using a iphone, make sure you keep it awake)
Kill the Roon app
(Tip: If you are using Android please go to Settings > Apps > Roon > Force Stop)
